What If?
by blackviper327
Summary: What if Terra hadn't gone through with Slade's plan to infiltrate the T Tower? What if she had decided that her loyalty rested with friends? What if the course of the Titans' history had been change forever? What if? Sorry for the crap summary. Rated T for language and violence.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"That's...quite a story, Terra." Robin said, his face still a mixture of disbelief, a trace of anger, and the flash of sympathy as he looked down at the shamefaced blonde sitting in front of him, her head hung low with her long bangs covering her eyes while Beast Boy held her hand. From what Robin could tell, Beast Boy had been by her side like this for the last hour or so before Terra had come down and called them all to the living room, and he couldn't blame him. If Starfire had been in this much pain, he would have been doing exactly the same. The others looked as shocked as him, even Raven, who stood wide-eyed to his left, her hood down and her gaze fixed on the geomancer.

She'd been a traitor. Or at least, that had been the plan. After the first time they had met her, when she had left after she believed Beast Boy had told them about her lack of control over her powers, Slade had found her. He'd convinced her that he could help her, trained her in her powers and then sent her back here as a mole. Tonight was supposed to have been his coupe de grace; She was supposed to have sent the tower's security codes to him, and then his drones would have taken care of the rest. In the end, however, her conscience had won out, and she'd refused her final task. So how they were here. There was silence for a full minute before Terra spoke up again, her voice hoarse and full of regret.

"I'm so sorry...I can't believe I did this to you all. You trusted me...you haven't done anything but help me...you must hate me now." She sniffled at the last word, looking as he she might start sobbing again any second now. Beast Boy gave her hand a firm squeeze at that, and she seemed to calm down again at that touch. Cyborg was the first to speak up.

"Terra, you're family far as I'm concerned. That's all I need to say on that." Instantly forgiven. That was Cyborg, alright. He always did like to play big brother. Robin couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile at that. The big guy certainly did a good job in that role. Then it was Starefire's turn. She was...well, she was Starfire.

"Oh, Friend Terra, how could I hate you!? You are the most wonderful I have ever had! The terrible, terrible Slade has lied to you and manipulated you! I will break him for this!" She shouted as she scooped up Terra in a fierce, almost bone-crushing hug. The first part of her declaration of forgiveness had been typical of the Tamaraian. The last part, however, was not. That part had actually frightened Robin. He could actually see that normally sweet, innocent girl doing her best to break every bone in Slade's body for something like this. Slowly, Starfire realized she might have been holding onto Terra a _little _ too tightly, and let her go with a comforting little smile. Terra did her best to smile back, but it was still obvious that she didn't feel much better. Beast Boy was still quite. He'd no doubt already said his piece in private. That left Raven.

Truth be told, Robin had expected Raven to storm out or chew their newest member out like a drill sergeant. Instead, the ash-colored young woman set herself down beside Terra with a nod.

"You followed your conscience in the end. You beat Slade's manipulation. That's what matters now. We can't change what happened or the choices you made before, but you choose your future. You chose us over him." Her hand was on Terra's shoulder as she spoke, her tone surprisingly gentle compared to her usual abrasive monotone. Terra looked shocked at that. Obviously she hadn't been expecting that kind of response from Raven either. There was a long pause, and then, with a sob she threw her arms around Raven and began to cry again. Not guilt alone this time. There was relief in it too.

"I...I don't know what to say. I can't believe you're all forgiving me after this." She finally choked out. Robin looked the geomancer in the eye as he spoke

"You're a Titan, Terra." That struck the girl more than anything else that had been said tonight, it was clear. She looked at all of them slowly with bloodshot eyes.

"You're the best friends I've ever had."

* * *

In the depths of Jump Cities' abandoned lower levels, secure from intrusion by those pesky little superheroes that seemed to be cropping up like weeds all over the world, Slade Wilson swore as he picked the shards of glass from his hand. He'd broken his favorite wine glass when he'd read the little girl's message. It was supposed to have gone so simply. Train her, gain her trust and loyalty, then send her in to do the same with the Titans, then crush that vermin once and for all.

But no. She'd just had to go and grow a conscience while she was with the Titans. He could still feel his blood boil as it tricked from the dozens of small gashes in his hand. One word. It has been one word she'd sent, but it was still enough to send him into a rage.

"No."

He swore again as he drew the largest shard from his palm, earning the attention of the men waiting at either side of the entrance to the room. Sharpes and Deych were recent hires. Professional killers that had worked in Gotham for most of their lives before relocating to Jump City after a nasty run-in with that grim town's own caped crusader. Both men were in their forties, like him, wearing black suits, balding (Sharpes retaining his rusty brown, while Deych's had gone prematurely gray), and carrying a .45 automatic under their jackets.

"Sir? Everything alright?" Sharpes said a bit cautiously, not moving from his spot. Slade briefly thought about berating his underling for such a stupid question, but he understood that men in that position only had so many responses. If their places were reversed, he imagined he would have asked the question as well.

"Yes. There is a setback in operations. But only a minor one. Plan 2 is still workable. Deych, I want you to contact Mr. Luthor and inform him of a business proposition. Sharpes, all of my contacts in Gotham, Metropolis and Central City. We will require heavies." He was done with the local muscle. They idiots. Cinderblock and Plamus? They'd failed on multiple occasions, as had those HIVE children. No, it was time to bring in some _real _muscle. Plan 2 would be more extensive, and costly than his initial operation, but the results would be well worth it. It had gravitas as well. Gravitas and horrific science that would make even the most crazed of those madmen that modern superscience seemed to breed like rabbits want to cry out his inhumanity.

His domination of this city was only delayed. Things would go his way. And when they did...well, the world would never be the same again.

**Whew...finally I got to posting this bitch. I've had this idea rolling out in my head for ages now, and I figured it was time that I got cracking. Sorry for the shortness, but then again this is just the prologue. You'll be getting plenty more soon. Read and review, folks. Keep the Titans alive!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello, readers! I had a whole lot of free time last night (Arizona monsoon season. Yeah.) so I figured I'd get cracking on the official first chapter of this bitch. Hopefully it won't be as littered with errors as the prologue (Sorry, folks!). I can't say now if I'll have regular updates to this, but I'll do my best to churn chapters out as quick as I can while preserving quality.**

**And fluffysnowkittynamedskylar, this is indeed a BB/Terra story. :)**

* * *

Chapter 1

While Central City wasn't nearly as dangerous as Gotham when the sun set, it still certainly had it troubles, most of whom preferred to get their business settled after the sun had set. It didn't really help to avoid The Flash's ever-vigilant watch over his hometown, but it was ingrained in the brains of most criminals, even some of the costumed ones, that it was more of a force of habit than anything else.

Shade, however, just preferred the dark. Not surprising, considering the fact that the Nightstick was a tool of the shadows, a power that it had demonstrated quite well tonight. For once, this job had gone smooth. The sack of jewelry was heavy, but that just made him enjoy the success of tonight even more. Everyone was milking the opportunities while Flash was out of town dealing with...nobody was sure what, but it was off in Kasnia, so it wasn't like he needed to worry about his interference. Kid Flash didn't even warrant a worry in his mind, and he shook his head with a laugh as he started the nondescript van, his haul resting securely in the trunk. He'd have to move fast if he was going to fence this stuff. He had a buyer that was paying fifty cents on the dollar, so he was looking at a damned impressive eight hundred thousand dollar haul here after the finder's fee, and the cut to his crew for this job. Not the most impressive take ever, but it was respectable, and it would be paying the bills for quite a while.

Then his phone rang. It surprised him enough that he almost swerved into a fire hydrant, swearing and feeling damn lucky there wasn't a cop car in sight. He didn't want to get caught by some cruiser thinking they were dealing with another drunk driver only to find him and the jewels inside. That would just be embarrassing. Growling with frustration he answered the phone with one hand, pulling into an alley while he spoke (He wasn't _that _careless a driver.)

"What? This ain't exactly a great time to be talking." He said in as annoyed a tone as he could muster.

"Got a business proposition for you. I'll spare ya the details for now and cut to the chase; My employer needs some real muscle out here in Jump City. Was told to mention the sum've 1.5 million for initial involvement." Came the voice on the other end, rough and deep, probably middle-aged. 1.5 mil, eh? That was a _lot _of money. Which only meant one thing. Deathstroke (or was he going by his name now? Didn't matter.) was trying to form another Injustice Gang, or something else just as crazy. In most circumstances, Shade probably would have been inclined to hang up right then. The Injustice Gang didn't work, he know. Hell, he'd been in two different incarnations, and both ended up being failures (the second even turning out to be some crazy-ass Amazonian gendercide scheme). But Jump City...that place was easy pickings. Those kids, the Teen Titans, were used to fighting other dumb kids on a daily basis, or that joke Killer Moth. The Minor League of villainy. Shade? He was in the Majors. Compared to the Justice League, the Titans were a merry happy fun times walk in the park. Plus, again, 1.5 mil was a _lot _of money.

"...I'm listening."

One more call to Central City, two to Metropolis, and two to Gotham. It took around two hours in all for Nick Sharpes to finish his given chore. He felt just a little bit insulted at being given the job of messenger boy, but the money Slade was paying him right now was enough to placate those feelings. He'd be able to retire to Honolulu after this, live in real style like he'd dreamed up back when he was a kid. Or maybe he'd just get a nice, big condo out here. He didn't miss Gotham in the slightest, not with Batman still around, and sure as hell not while Joker was still kicking.

He and Greg Deych were professionals, damnit, wasted talent on messanger duty. They'd done work for just about all of the bosses in Gotham at one point or another, and they'd made a name for themselves working for King Barlowe before he finally bit it to the cancer. Slade had brought them over to Jump City about two months ago, and so far he'd been one of their better employers, even if he did seem to have some weird obsession with getting one of those Titan kids as an apprentice. The last one had gone native, though, so now they'd gone to Plan B, which as far as he could tell was getting together a bunch of scary-ass supers from the big league for...well, he didn't have any clue about what came next. Boss didn't trust him enough for that kind of information. Typical of these supervillain types.

Sharpes let out a sigh as he picked up the phone again, starting to dial the number for the Central City International Airport. It was going to be a long night.

It was a quiet day for the Titans, a rarity these days with Slade's plans escalating by the week, and with the increase in general supervillainy-related nonsense. Sure the League kept most of the big players out of Jump City, but they still had their fair share of trouble, what with HIVE and the influx of guys coming in from Gotham thinking that they would have easier pickings here (Oh, how wrong they were). Four of the Titans were gathered at their usual pizzeria. Terra looked far better than she had only eight hours ago, her face back to the usual smiles and radiance. Cyborg was sure she was forcing it a bit, but she did genuinely seem better. Beast Boy of course was right by her side at the table, in the middle of a story from his Doom Patrol days, complete with highly animated gestures. They were trying not to think about what had happened last night. Robin was off doing his own thing, and Cyborg wasn't sure where Starfire was.

"So Robotman throws Mallah across the room straight into this vat of...I don't know what it was, but it stuck him to the floor for hours! I thought about telling him to stick around but that would have been too easy." He was standing on his seat now, pizza in hand for effect. Terra laughed, as always, smiling up at the changeling while Raven rolled her eyes. They'd heard this story a few times.

"So...uh...not to sound weird or anything, but...from all those stories you told us it...kinda sounds like Mallah might have...y'know...had a thing for the Brain." Cyborg said a bit tentatively, absently chewing on his own slice of pizza while Beast Boy looked down at him with some horror in his face.

"...Dude, I don't wanna know if that was true or not. That's just...ah, man now I'm never going to get that image out of my head!" Terra looked a little horrified at that, too, while Raven was completely unphased.

"I've heard of odder pairings before. You should look into one of those fanfiction websites sometime if you think the idea of those two is bad."

"No! Never again!" Cyborg and Beast Boy screamed almost in unison. They had...discovered some of the odd, terrible thoughts that some yaoi fangirls could conjure given time, a computer and people to read their stories. About them. In very, _very _deep detail. It took a few minutes for the two to regain the composure. Raven just looked pretty happy with herself.

"So...getting the elephant in the room out of the way. Terra, did you see anything useful about any plans that Slade might have in case this whole situation happened?" Raven said, turning to look Terra in the eye. Terra paused, the guilt coming back to her expression for a moment before she forced it to leave as she thought on the question.

"Nothing very specific as to what he had planned in case...yeah, this happened. Just a lot of phone numbers and names."

"What names?" Raven pressed, while Beast Boy looked at her a bit defensively.

"Dude, come on, don't do this so soon." He tried not to say it too sharply as she scooted closer to Terra, his face a far cry from his usual goofy friendly smile. Terra put a hand on his gently, offering him a smile of her own before she turned back to face Raven.

"It's alright BB. I think I remember most of them. Lester Buchinsky...Joseph Martin...Lawrence Crook...Richard Swift...Rudy Jones...Leonard Snart. That's it. There was a lot of talk about Venom too. Not sure what that means." Raven frowned at that. Obviously she didn't like what she heard.

"Do those names mean anything to you?" She said to Cyborg and Beast Boy. Both of them shrugged.

"Not one of 'em. Might be some guys he works with?" Cyborg said it without much certainty. "Personally if that talk about Venom is what I _think _it's about, I'm more worried about that more than those names."

"Why? What's Venom supposed to mean?" Beast Boy said with genuine baffelement. Raven just sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Uh...Beast Boy, that's the stuff that makes Bane so damn scary to fight." Cy pointed out. That got Beast Boy's attention.

"Oh. That's...really, really bad, then. What do you think he'd do with the stuff?"

"I don't know, BB. But whatever it is, it can't possibly end well for anyone." All four were silent for a long time, their food left unattended and growing cold. Raven was the one to break the silence.

"We need to tell Robin. This sounds like it's going to make for a bad week."

**And that's a wrap for Chapter 1. Sorry it's short, hit a writer's block here for a little while, and I wanted to save the big bad guy meet for another chapter. You might've noticed that I could/probably should have categorized this in the Teen Titans/Justice League crossover section, but since this is focusing more on Jump City and the Titans, it deserves to be kept strictly in their category. Still couldn't resist the urge to put the tie-ins to the DCAU in, though. Don't judge me! Like it? Hate it? Read and review, folks! Keep the Titans alive!**


End file.
